The transport sector is facing deep uncertainty. Not only are there mounting signs of a new era of mobility unfolding as a rapidly maturing digital age has collided with the motor age, but we are discovering that our forecast-led paradigm of transport planning needs to evolve in response to a changing world.

CIHT and TPS are keen to tackle these issues through an evening of discussion and networking amongst transport professionals.

There has been growing recognition of the need to embrace this deep uncertainty over the future in tandem with strategic planning intended to shape that future. This helps to ensure policymaking and investment decisions are more robust. This joint CIHT/TPS event hosted by Transport for Greater Manchester and sponsored by Mott MacDonald is an opportunity to hear about the challenges and opportunities of this new approach to planning that is now being developed and applied. Its uncomfortable territory but as the French philosopher Voltaire reportedly said over 200 years ago, “Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one”. We need to engage with this challenge or we risk running into problems.

• Glenn Lyons (Mott MacDonald Professor of Future Mobility) 
• Nicola Kane (Head of Strategic Planning and Research, Transport for Greater Manchester) 
• Stephen Cragg (Senior Transport Planner, Transport Scotland)

Chaired by Lynn Basford (Independent Consultant and CIHT Lead on CIHT FUTURES)